A Brief Intro to Performance Max Campaigns

Google Ads is constantly updating its services. In their latest announcement, they’ve launched Performance Max Campaigns for all advertisers. After remarkable beta results, they’re rolling out the adaptive service to their Google Ads users.

But it’s got a lot of advertisers asking – what even are Google Ads Performance Max Campaigns? It’s an excellent question. And as always, I’ve got the answer ready.

In this article, I’ll explain everything we know about Performance Max Campaigns so far. This brief intro will cover how this latest campaign rolls all the others into one – and what you can expect going forwards.

What are Google Ads Performance Max Campaigns?

Eagle-eyed marketers will have noticed a growing trend in recent years. Google is on an automation drive. Boosted by advances in AI and machine learning, they’re providing systems that take away much of the headache in traditional Google Ads campaigns.

Performance Max Campaigns automates the targeting and delivery of campaign-based information provided by the advertiser.

You’ll provide an “asset bank” of ad creatives – think call-to-actions, videos, copy, and images. Performance Max then uses Google’s smart bidding system across all of Google’s channels like YouTube, Display, search, Discovery, Gmail, and Maps – creating ads that are right for each searcher on each channel.

As Google explains:

Not sold yet?

What are the Benefits of Performance Max Campaigns?

Google isn’t releasing Performance Max for the sake of it. There are real, tangible benefits to be enjoyed.

Greater focus

Part of Google’s aims is to allow campaigns to be more readily customised to your targets. With different businesses prioritising different metrics and outcomes, Performance Max Campaigns put the advertiser in the driving seat of the automation process.

It’ll also provide a real-time understanding of consumers’ intents and preferences. Like Dynamic Search Campaigns, you can better unlock new audience segments you may not have considered before.

So, you set the goals and let Google’s machine learning do the rest of the work.

Broader reach

Performance Max Campaigns significantly broaden the reach of your ads by engaging customers across all Google’s channels.

You’ll gain access to rich insights regarding your campaign creatives from each channel. You can then tweak and adjust your campaign creatives – the building blocks of your campaign – to boost your ROI. Performance Max will report which creatives are impacting your performance, as well as provide new insight into rising search trends.

That latter point is critical.

As Google explained in their announcement:

“Google Image searches for “yard landscaping ideas” have grown globally by over 80% YoY1 as people look for more ways to spruce up their homes. Meanwhile, searches for “best all-inclusive resorts” have grown globally by over 200% YoY2 as people get inspired to travel again.”

Being able to jump on trends as they’re taking off means your business strategy will always be ahead of the curve – literally.

Data-driven ads

We all use data to determine when we target a keyword or adjust an existing ad. But we can’t use data in real-time; Performance Max can.

Using machine learning models, Performance Max will determine when best to show an ad, to which audience, and using which combination of your campaign creatives. It sounds like every marketer’s dream!

Will advertisers still have an element of control?

Google hasn’t done away with humans – just yet (phew!). Performance Max is still just one of the tools in the advertiser’s toolbox – it just happens to be a very smart tool.

Depending on your goal, you’ll still have significant control over the campaign, including:

• Budget and bids. Performance Max determines where and when to show your ad. You decide your max conversion, max value, overall budget – but also your max cost per conversion. That means you can better control how much you’re spending relative to your return on investment.
• URL options. Inside the system, there’s the possibility to toggle on or off targeted URLs. You determine what landing pages you want customers to be sent to or let the system decide (you can still exclude specific URLs).
• Campaign creatives. The building blocks of your ad campaign are still in your hands. You add the images, videos, logos, and copy – Performance Max does the rest.
• Location and language. Don’t want your ad shown to people halfway around the world? It won’t be. You can set your location and language settings. You can even schedule the ad campaign for specific dates.
• Audience interests and detailed demographics – this is such a powerful tool. Give Google the ‘heads up’ about what audience group you want to focus on. No matter what product or service you’re offering, Google will have an audience interest group that’s relevant
• And lots more…. 

Who Should Use Performance Max Campaigns?

Performance Max is available to all advertisers, but you might not want to abandon traditional advertising just yet. There are a few key groups who’ll benefit most from this machine learning upgrade:

• Specific goals. Performance Max is ideal if you have specific advertising or conversion goals (e.g., lead generation, boosting online sales).
• All channels. Do you want to manage a single campaign covering all of Google’s channels? If so, Performance Max Campaigns are the answer to your prayers. It’ll condense all your multiple campaigns into one easy-to-manage location.
• Broader reach. Because Google Ads Performance Max Campaigns cover all of Google’s ad channels, you can significantly widen your potential customer base. It’ll also help target keywords and even ad appearance based on who the system is marketing to.
• Greater optimisation. You can optimise your campaigns beyond just keywords. With ads tailored to your audience – using the campaign creatives – every ad is optimised to your target market.

Is it the Future?

Performance Max is where Google wants to push its services going forwards. And it is a significant step up from existing automated and machine learning ad services.

It all depends on your goals and campaign type.

High-volume campaigns mean lots of data for the system to analyse. Such advertisers will likely see significant results – potentially much better than traditional search campaigns.

We’ll have to see how the industry responds long-term, however, I suspect this is the future and there’s no point fighting it. Google has made a lot of changes in the last 12-18 months that now make sense! Performance Max campaigns have the potential to be extremely powerful. It’s a lot to get your head around, but I feel that it will be the backbone of many campaigns going forward.